Pre-Order Countdown: 5 DAYS

There are only five days left in the pre-order period for my book, during which you can order “But Not Forgotten” for 25% off the cover price. So, for the next five days, I’ll post one of my favorite short excerpts from the book!

• Visit my website to order
• AND, like the But Not Forgotten Facebook page by April 30th for a chance to win a signed copy of the book.

Here’s today’s excerpt (remembering the Iron Horse Festival):

One of the highlights of summer for us was enjoying a grilled pork chop and corn on the cob at the Iron Horse Festival. Under the shade of huge blue tents, we’d watch the throngs walk the aisles as they played carnival games and bought cheap trinkets, all the while listening to the muddle of music from a half-dozen stages, occasionally drowned out by the impressive whistle atop the festival’s main attraction — the city’s 1920 steam engine.

We were lucky enough to live nearby and avoided the heavy traffic by walking to the Iron Horse — or at least Mom and Dad did. I was just a few weeks away from my ninth birthday, and recall a nighttime piggyback ride on Dad’s back across the Third Street bridge after the Saturday night fireworks — my face sticky from the evening humidity and at least one elephant ear (fried dough dusted with powdered sugar).

We were among the thousands who rode the rails that weekend, and physically felt that massive strength and energy — both of the train itself and the excitement of seeing our downtown bustle.

By the late 1980s, I was old enough to trek to the festival each year on my own. It became a reunion of sorts for schoolmates who hadn’t seen much of each other since classes broke for the summer. It was an escape from home with the other boys, riding our bikes through downtown alleys like pubescent Easy Riders, trailed by the motor-like clatter of playing cards held between spokes by our mothers’ clothespins.

Later, when I was old enough to drive, the festival was the meeting point from which we would embark on nighttime drives on country roads, usually highlighted by a high-speed pass through Devil’s Dip with the headlights out. The prime meeting spot was outside the Jaycees Beer Tent, where we could listen to the sounds of the hottest area cover bands and smell the sweet aroma of forbidden intoxicants.